Not Applicable
Although the box of this invention is described as being used for the transport of crickets, the term xe2x80x9cCricket Boxxe2x80x9d as applied to the box of this invention is not intended to be limited to a box used in the shipment of crickets. The xe2x80x9ccricket boxxe2x80x9d of this invention can be used in shipping such insects as ladybugs, hover flies, yellow jackets, ground beetles, and mealworms, just as examples. It can also be used to transport small animals.
Millions of crickets are shipped every year, not only for bait but, more frequently, for food for reptiles of various sorts. Boxes presently commercially available for shipping crickets have front, back, and side walls each with panels that fold in, one set of panels overlapping the other with the meeting edges of one set crossing the meeting edges of the other at right angles. Side walls of the box have openings in them, closed by screen wire each stapled in place by 15 or more staples, for a total of at least 30 staples. The exposed edges of the flaps are taped to hold them in position and also to prevent the escape of the crickets (or other insects). The boxes presently used are subject to being crushed, and are labor intensive, requiring, as they do, that the screen be stapled, a hand operation, and extensively taped, also a hand operation.
The box of this invention requires no staples or glue, and little taping. Its sidewalls are effectively three-ply, giving great resistance to crushing, so that the boxes not only can be shipped with less damage, but can be stacked vertically to almost any height to which such boxes are likely to be stacked. Their blanks are not complicated, and their assembly is relatively fast and easy, reducing the labor required by orders of magnitude.
In accordance with this invention, generally stated, a cricket box has a bottom wall, a top wall, a rear wall integral with the bottom wall along a bottom edge and integral with the top wall along a upper edge, a front wall integral with the bottom wall along a bottom edge, and sidewalls integral with the bottom wall on a bottom edge. Each of the sidewalls has at least one substantial opening in it. The rear and front walls have end flaps at each end, folded inwardly substantially perpendicularly to the front and rear walls and to the bottom wall, to lie along side and inboard of the sidewalls. The end flaps have openings complementary to the sidewall openings. The sidewalls have sidewall panels integral with the sidewalls, folded over the end flaps. The sidewall panels have openings complementary to the openings. The sidewall panels engage the bottom wall, and in the preferred embodiment, have a strip from which locking tabs are lanced, the locking tabs engaging lips defining one edge of slits in the bottom wall, the strips engaging the bottom wall.